317 



In the North West, we have a thirty, and in Ma- 

 dras, a fifty years settlement. The landholders and 

 peasant-proprietors, having a perfect right of occu- 

 pancy, sell and mortgage their land without let 

 or hindrance. Can anything further, as regards 

 security of title, be required? Does any English 

 landlord give such good leases to his tenants? I think 

 not. Assuredly then, security of title is not what is 

 required to give the people of India such an interest 

 in the soil, as will induce them to expend capital 

 upon it. They have it to the full already ; and if 

 proof of the fact be wanting, I refer to the rent-free 

 tenures. Rent-free estates are scattered throughout 

 the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies. One sixth of 

 the whole of the land in the Madras Presidency 

 is held free of rent. Compare the condition of the 

 cultivators of both, and what is the result ? The 

 bulk of the testimony of the Government officials 

 on the subject is, that the condition of the people 

 paying revenue to Government is better than that 

 of those paying none, the reason assigned being, that 

 the demand of Government acts as a beneficial 

 stimulus on their dormant energies. 



We must seek, therefore, for some other causes 

 for the depressed condition of the cultivators and 

 peasant-proprietors of India, than the absence of a 

 perfect property in the soil. Nor is it difficult to 

 find them. They are, high assessments, rack rents, 

 short leases, oppression of landlords, excess of 



